State officials: Rover Pipeline refusing to clean up slurry spills
ENVIRONMENT /
Officials say the Rover Pipeline has not cleaned up diesel-contaminated waste that state regulators told the company to stop dumping near the water supplies of tens of thousands of Stark County residents.
Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Director Craig Butler cited Rover’s failure to properly dispose of the waste as an example of how Rover and parent company Energy Transfer Partners have stiff-armed state regulators.
On Monday, Butler said he has referred Rover’s violations to the Ohio attorney general for civil action, including a possible civil penalty of almost $1 million.
Dallas-based Energy Transfer is building the $4.2 billion Rover Pipeline across Ohio, including parts of Stark, Tuscarawas and Carroll counties in eastern Ohio. The interstate pipeline will carry natural gas produced by wells in the Utica and Marcellus shales.
Despite Ohio EPA’s attempts to negotiate a settlement, Rover and Energy Transfer argue they’re exempt from state regulation because the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved the pipeline, Butler said.
“We think that’s garbage and the state has all the authority we need to hold them accountable for these environmental problems they’ve caused in the state,” he said.
Messages seeking comment were left with an Energy Transfer spokeswoman.
The Ohio EPA accuses Rover of numerous environmental violations, including spills of bentonite clay slurry. The company uses the slurry when it drills a path for the pipeline beneath highways, rivers and other obstacles.
The biggest spill happened April 13 in Bethlehem Township where workers have been drilling under the Tuscarawas River south of Navarre.
The workers pumped some 5 million gallons of slurry under the ground to lubricate the drill, and more than 2 million gallons bubbled to the surface and coated 6.5 acres of wetland. Testing revealed the slurry contained low levels of diesel fuel and the Ohio EPA said it continues to investigate allegations that diesel fuel is being added to the drilling mud.
Rover dumped the contaminated slurry in two quarries. One site is near Aqua Ohio wells north of Massillon. The other quarry is close to the Canton Water Department’s Sugar Creek water supply near Beach City.
The Ohio EPA demanded on Friday that Rover remove the slurry from the wetland and the quarries.
The company also has to test and monitor residential and municipal wells near the initial spill and the quarries, and if contamination is found, Rover would have to pay for new wells or connect residents to municipal water sources, according to the EPA order.
Butler said Rover is still cleaning up the spilled slurry near the Tuscarawas River, and the scope of the job got bigger last week.
On July 2, approximately 5,000 gallons of slurry were spilled at the original release site near the river. The following day, another 1,500 to 2,500 gallons were spilled outside the containment area and within 10 feet of the riverbank.